By
Carlos Santoscoy
Published:
January 09, 2014

Journalist Masha Gessen believes that
the Russian government is waiting for the international spotlight of
the Winter Olympics to pass before launching a new wave of attacks
against the LGBT community there.

Gessen, whose new book about Pussy
Riot, Words Will Beak Cement, was released this week, said
she, her partner and their children fled Russia to escape the
crackdown.

“I lived in Russia full time for the
last 20 years and I've always been out,” Gessen
told Fresh
Air's
Terry Gross. “So yes, I've been able to be out. I've been out
to my employers; I've been out publicly; I've been one of those
people that are invited to every talk show that's ever devoted to
LGBT issues, which were never so heated as they were in the last
year.”

“One of the pernicious things about
what's going on in Russia is that there are few people who are as
publicly out as I was, but [LGBT people] are generally comfortable,
or have been comfortable until recently. So they don't have a closet
to hide in, especially if they have kids. Often their pediatrician
knows, their schoolteachers know, their neighbors know. What are
they supposed to do? How are they supposed to suddenly un-come out
and prevent social services from coming after their kids?”

Gessen said she decided to immigrate to
New York not because of anti-gay laws approved last year but to avoid
a second wave of attacks that she believes will take place after the
international spotlight of the Sochi Games has passed.

“I left in time to not be there after
the Olympics. I'm not afraid of what's going to happen during the
Olympic Games, but I think there will be a severe crackdown after the
games are over,' she said.